Pfizer Animal Health to acquire veterinary diagnostics firm Synbiotics Corp

Pfizer Animal Health, a unit of the $50-billion pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc, yesterday disclosed that it will buy veterinary diagnostics company Synbiotics Corp, in a bid to enter into the $735 million global immunodiagnostics market.

Largely privately-held Synbiotics is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of veterinary diagnostics and services for veterinary practices, reference laboratories and animal breeders world-wide. 

With headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, Synbiotics develops and manufactures products from facilities in San Diego, California and Lyon, France.  

Its core competencies include immunology, immunodiagnostics and reproduction. Veterinary immunodiagnostics, a methodology using antigen-antibody reaction to detect viruses or bacteria in animals, is a sector growing an estimated 8 per cent annually, twice the rate of the animal health industry as a whole.  

The global immunodiagnostics market is valued at $735 million, according to industry sources.

Although both companies have not disclosed the financial terms of the transaction, Synbiotics estimates that its common shareholders will be entitled to receive up to approximately $0.306 per share in cash, of which approximately $0.019 per share will be held in escrow as a fund against which Pfizer may make claims for losses arising from any breaches of Synbiotics' representations, warranties, covenants and agreements and similar customary matters.